The Kilburn Arms — Restaurant in London

I want to like this lovely pub which is a sensitive restoration of a disastrous predecessor in which I hardly ever set foot, despite living just 250 metres away. I also want to counter the judgments of the last reviewer: I have eaten here three times and the food, especially the fish, is first class and not expensive either, in my view. And, to declare an interest, that view is delivered despite my originally proposing an alternative set of caterers (in which I have no financial interest) to run the kitchen. The pubco (Star pubs aka Heineken) was right and I was wrong.

Desperate as I am for the place to succeed, that is the end of the good news. It is 13:00 on a Sunday lunchtime and I have been sitting in the pub for 15 minutes and there are 5 other customers. The kitchen is closed despite a lot of hullabaloo about a weekend bottomless brunch offer in the initial publicity. The bar staff couldn’t say when it would be open but thought it would be a hour. A friend I met this morning who is influential in the middle class middle aged communities which surround the site and which would be its natural market told me that she and friends waited over 40 minutes for food one evening this week. Last time in I couldn’t get chips, only fries, because they had run out, and this in a pub with a built-in fish and chip shop.The music track is dire easy listening and like much of the rest of the offer betrays not a moment’s critical thought about who the pub is trying to attract. Sometimes the mixed messages are close to each other - the gents toilet offers the handwash of a gastropub but the stainless steel pissoir of a neglected basic boozer from the 1970s.

This outdatedness and lack of sense of place and identity is most clearly seen in the beer offer. I exaggerated slightly when I posted on local media when the pub first opened that it had no beer that wasn’t introduced more than twenty years ago. This is an exaggeration because the bar offers Punk IPA in bottle, and Lagunitas and Coast to Coast - Heineken’s own (unsuccessful imo) attempt to mimic American craft beers - on draught. But hey - the Kilburn Arms is 5 kilometres from the very centre of a city that has seen a brewing revolution this century with a vast flowering of new breweries and brewing styles. Yet is there one London brewed beer of any character on offer here? I challenge the pubco or the management company - whoever controls drinks policy - to find one competitor pub in the vicinity that offers nothing from the likes of Camden, Meantime, Beavertown or Kernel.

We are prepared to love you but first you have to show that you know us and are prepared to listen, and based on what you learn, show us who you really can be. It’s a case of ‘will the real Kilburn Arms stand...

September 2024 Edit:

Stayed here again with family for two nights.

The Kilburn Arms have ‘upped their game’ and the food is now great, but still a tiny bit of room for improvement and then it would be excellent.

Good quality food at fair prices and now offering breakfast service from 7AM which, is a massive plus. Nothing worse than waking up and then having to hunt down somewhere for Breakfast.

The Breakfast Menu is good with lots of choices, including Smoked Salmon/ Full English/ Scrambled Eggs etc. I also recommended their home-made Juices, especially Celery & Ginger.

Still the usual niggly problems with the Rooms, such as a Shower-head being loose and lack of power/ heat, just general maintenance. The Fire Alarm Call-Point is missing in the Hotel Lobby!

But, overall, well done Kilburn, this is a big improvement!

I/ We have stayed at the Kilburn Arms many times both for work and pleasure. We have had some really good stays, good food/ entertainment.

However, I feel that the food has gone considerably downhill and the service has lacklustre - bringing out Starters and Mains at the same time is a No-No and then leaving Fish & Chips on the Hotplate makes them dry and stale.

The attention to detail has all but gone.

If I want to stay at the Kilburn I usually send a WhatsApp message to the very friendly Landlady (Evie) but even her replies have become hit & miss.

The Kilburn usually has some good entertainment in the evenings which can be really enjoyable. The rooms are clean, warm and spacious, but now seem to be lacking simple maintenance, for example, the sink plug missing, no Mirror in room, Shower hose burst and spurting out everywhere. We usually pay £90 per room for two people, this does NOT include any Breakfast.

I like coffee after a meal, but this time even the Coffee machine was broken and the staff were moaning about how old it is and that it never works.

We will return, but for now we will be looking for a new venue to stay at.

We hope that the Kilburn can get it together again soon as it can be a...

This rate is for the fish and chips which was unimpressive by looks and taste. The chips were mushy, didn't look fresh and crispy and tasted old oil. Normally when I have a good chips I always want more. For this dish I left the average size portion unfinished after getting more upset for each chips I was trying hoping to the next one was going to change my mind. I did finish the fish, which was ok and left me wondering if it was well cooked all throughout. I cook well in general and have even had prefessional cooking training as well as been a foddie, so I know when something horrible, bellow average, acceptable, good and very good. The dish was below average and left me hungry and disappointed. I didn't want to have dinner at home as I was meeting friends at the pub but from now on I will always have dinner at home before I meet my friend at this pub or I will eat elsewhere prior to the pub. I will end saying that people have different standards and that maybe for some people their fish and chips is good or even very good. In my case they will never ever get my money again for any dish and I regretted have spent £12.50 for something I would still be unhappy even if I had paid much less. The rest was good: the Saturday evening life music, the overall cleaningless of the whole place, the atmosphere (although the guy who took the order cold have been a bit...